Biography
Gregorio Peralta was born in San Juan. He later resided in the area of Rosario, in Santa Fe Province.
On April 5, 1958, he made his professional boxing debut, knocking out a rival (Rene Pereira) who had lost all fourteen of his bouts. Peralta's fourth round knockout of Pereira was at the legendary Luna Park, in Buenos Aires.
Peralta won his first five fights by knockout, then went the ten round distance for the first time on September 6 of that same year, against Jose Angel Manzur, whom he outpointed over ten rounds in Montevideo, Uruguay. His first fight abroad had already been held, when he beat Marcelo Farias by a second round knockout 35 days before, also at Montevideo.
On October 22, he and Manzur had a rematch, with the two boxers drawing (tying) after ten more rounds.
On March 31, 1959, Peralta suffered his first loss as a professional, a ten round decision defeat to then reigning South American light heavyweight champion Luis Ignacio in São Paulo, Brazil in a non-title bout. Peralta had one loss and two draws in his next three fights, but then he returned to winning, when he avenged his defeat against Ignacio by knocking him out in three rounds, August 23 in Brazil.
After winning his next five fights, including four in Uruguay, Peralta faced Mauro Mina, in a widely expected light heavyweight bout between two South Americans. On June 15, 1960, Peralta was knocked out by Mina in eight rounds at Lima, Peru.
Peralta then won twelve and drew one of his next thirteen bouts. Among those were a ten round decision in a rubber match with Manzur, and a four round disqualification win over Aurelio Diaz. Peralta was given his first chance at winning a belt when he fought Jose Giorgetti, on August 4, 1962, at Mar del Plata for the Argentine Heavyweight title. He won the national belt by outpointing Giorgetti over twelve rounds, and then won fifteen more bouts in a row, for a total of 24 victories and one draw in twenty-five bouts.
Beats Pastrano== The biggest win of his career came during that streak, when he outpointed world light heavyweight champion Willie Pastrano over ten rounds at Miami, Florida on September 20, 1963 in a non-title bout. His first fight with Pastrano marked Peralta's United States debut as a professional boxer.
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